No deal with any devil

DO WE create a precedent by negotiating with the devil? Justice Malala, in his article “Cyril may need pact with the devil” (DD, June 25) raises this issue.

We must be very slow about any urge to negotiate with possible criminals. Former president Jacob Zuma is anxious to have the charges against him dropped and will use any trick to this end.

Meanwhile citizens, except his supporters in KZN, wait for progress and an outcome.

But we must all be equal before the law. Negotiating with him about dropping the charges will defeat this. It will affirm the notion that others can negotiate to have their charges dropped and avoid their day in court. Zuma has the right to prove his innocence in court like all of us.

Although our dispensation came about through negotiations it hardly means everything is to be achieved via this route. There is an unsatisfying assumption that in politics anything is possible, which can easily be used to cover criminal activity.

Under no circumstances should any amount of “negotiating” on the charges Zuma is accused of be allowed to feature.

If that happens we’ll be well on our way to being a banana republic.

I see his plan to turn our polity into a confused mass by factoring in criminality as a “norm” and necessary to achieve certain ends.

We must guard against this. Imagine if, in the course of negotiations, Zuma was found guilty.

We would have tied ourselves into a deal with a criminal, with no going back. No. Malala and others should not even consider the possibility.

I’ve analysed Zuma from his incarceration, through his struggle days, to his ascension to power and have concluded he is a master of manipulation, nothing else, no matter how much his supporters make of his legacy. At some stage the bluff must be called. These characters must be exposed. We must never create a precedent by negotiating with possible criminals. — Bongani Mankewu, via e-mail